A Tablet PC Wedding

A few weeks ago, Ponzi suggested that we could read our marriage vows from our respective laptops during the ceremony. I was amazed that she would suggest such a thing, but it just goes to show you that she really understands me (and respects my unhealthy fascination with technology). We have a couple of relatively unsexy Thinkpad’s, and they’re not quite lightweight.

I asked a few Tablet PC enthusiasts for suggestions, having never owned a Tablet PC – or never really needing to own one. James Kendrick pointed me in the direction of TabletKiosk. A UMPC would certainly fit the bill, and two eo UMPC v7110 256/40 (white) units were soon en route to our new home address – and Ponzi was none the wiser. Feel free to watch James’s review of the hardware if you wanna know more about it.

The Ultra-Mobile PCs arrived on Thursday, and I quickly unboxed them as if it was early Christmas morning. During the wedding rehearsal, I surprised Ponzi and the wedding party by unveiling them. Ponzi joked: “Is this my wedding present!?” We had mutually agreed to skip the spousal gifts, so I figured a twin set of UMPCs was a decent compromise.

Per my dad’s suggestion, I printed a copy of our vows (and taped them to the back of each computer) – just in case something went haywire. I thought I had covered all my bases – coping the vows to each UMPC, charging the battery, shutting down all unnecessary services, etc. What I didn’t do, however, is tweak the power management settings.

The two boys (Patrick Scoble and Lane Lawley) approached the chupa and I read my vows first. Of course, I can’t wait to get everybody an audio/video copy of this part of our ceremony – a photo simply doesn’t give you the full story. Immediately after I finished, Ponzi read her vows – and as she was just about to finish, the UMPC suspended itself! Ponzi said that Windows crashed, the audience exploded in laughter, and I quickly flipped her tablet around so that she could refer to the printed copy.

It was fun to do, and I think our friends and family got a kick out of it, too. Several people wanted to know more about the TabletKiosk systems – for good reason. They’re sexy, compact, and perfect for this kind of event.

As much as it pains me to say it, one of our wedding tablets was (likely) stolen from the venue later that night. We established a crime timeframe, and security tapes were analyzed. Ponzi and I have been invited back to Harbor Club Bellevue to review the potentially incriminating footage – as the suspects are not employees. As you can imagine, I’m completely unnerved. I really, really don’t want to see who did it – and I’d ask that if you know anything about this situation, you come forward sooner rather than later.

Man, that SO sux. If you recall when I said good night to you, you pulled out my wallet w/ drivers license and credit card which I’d dropped and someone had returned. Obviously two very different approaches to accruing karma. (Thanks, BTW, to whomever so kindly helped.)

Could you delegate the identification of the suspect to someone who could discreetly inquire and perhaps retrieve the tablet for you w/o you having to know who it is?

How could someone grab something that belongs to you (with your wedding vows written on it, no less) after partaking of your joyful abundance of food, booze and good times? Let’s hope someone accidentally took it by mistake.

Maybe someone was thinking to do a “Your tablet PC has been kidnapped (tee hee), and Look! Here is a picture of it at the Eiffel Tower, at the Grand Ol’ Opry, at Area 51, at the Great Wall,” and all that, before returning it to you?

Hope so anyway. That would just be gizzard for a wedding guest to filch it.

Dude… that’s terrible. I was recently (May 2006) married and a couple of crystal candlesticks disappeared from our reception. I would be devistated if my new laptop walked off. I hope you get it back as I (like you) can fully appreciate a new toy.